I live in Los Angeles and I'm lucky enough to write about the thing I love most: movies. I'm a graduate of Vassar College and Northwestern University and for 15 years I worked at Forbes mostly covering the entertainment industry. Although I've moved into the world of corporate journalism, I still contribute blog posts here.

It worked with Fast and Furious. Fast Five, which added Johnson to the mix of good-looking drivers, was the highest-grossing film of the franchise with $626 million at the global box office. It worked with Journey to the Center of the Earth. The second film, Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, earned $326 million at the global box office to the first movie’s $242 million. His skill has made him one of the top-paid actors in Hollywood. We estimate Johnson earned $36 million between May 2011 and May 2012.

Now Johnson might do it again with this weekend’s G.I. Joe: Retaliation. Exhibitor Relations expects the film will top the box office with $38 million over Easter weekend.

That’s actually less than the original film earned opening weekend. G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, brought in $55 million when it opened in 2009. The film went on to earn $302 million globally which, considering the movie’s estimated $175 million production budget, wasn’t a great haul.

The new movie was supposed to hit theaters last summer but it was moved to March to give Paramount time to retrofit the movie into 3-D. That puts the movie in theaters almost a full year after the first trailer hit the Internet.

The extra time certainly hasn’t helped the quality of the film, according to critics. The movie earns a mediocre 37 out of 100 on Rotten Tomatoes. Richard Roeper says: ”Like a dumpster behind Tiffany’s, this contains nothing but well-packaged garbage.”

The reviews probably won’t matter though. Even though the film doesn’t look like it will top the original opening weekend, it has a good chance to eventually earn more at the box office. Overseas money has become a much bigger deal since 1999. Johnson has a healthy following and the film also stars Channing Tatum who, in the past four years, has become a huge movie star. The addition of 3-D will also help overseas. The first movie earned about the same internationally as it did in the U.S. Today, it’s not unusual for an action movie to earn as much as 70% of its total box office take outside of the U.S.

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